Sorry I’m on an anti-antibiotic kick lately, but the news coming out lately is not encouraging. Sometimes it seems like single celled organisms are smarter than we are.
In our town Levaquin is doled out like water to anyone with the sniffles. Guess what? The the resistance rate to Levaquin is 40%. That means that 40% of the infections that used to be cured by Levaquin are now not affected by Levaquin.
Now there is an AM News article out stating that meningococcus has developed a quinolone resistance. Quinolones are the family of drugs that include Levaquin, Cipro, and Avelox. Sure, there are still some medications left - if you’re not allergic to them.
When people demand antibiotics for their colds.
When doctors inappropriately prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis.
When HHS guidelinesrequire physicians to give antibiotics within 4 hours of pneumonia regardless of the cause.
All of these things cause resistance to antibiotics.
When you get meningococcal meningitis and the drugs you receive could make the difference between life and death, now there’s one less drug to help you.
Keep taking antibiotics for colds. In the future when we need antibiotics to treat serious infections, the bugs will have already learned how to beat them and the antibiotics won’t work anymore.
Instead of being able to cure infections, one day the docs will just look at each other, shrug their shoulders, and shake their heads.
My head is already shaking.
Sorry I’m on an anti-antibiotic kick lately, but the news coming out lately is not encouraging. Sometimes it seems like single celled organisms are smarter than we are.
In our town Levaquin is doled out like water to anyone with the sniffles. Guess what? The the resistance rate to Levaquin is 40%. That means that 40% of the infections that used to be cured by Levaquin are now not affected by Levaquin.
Now there is an AM News article out stating that meningococcus has developed a quinolone resistance. Quinolones are the family of drugs that include Levaquin, Cipro, and Avelox. Sure, there are still some medications left - if you’re not allergic to them.
When people demand antibiotics for their colds.
When doctors inappropriately prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis.
When HHS guidelinesrequire physicians to give antibiotics within 4 hours of pneumonia regardless of the cause.
All of these things cause resistance to antibiotics.
When you get meningococcal meningitis and the drugs you receive could make the difference between life and death, now there’s one less drug to help you.
Keep taking antibiotics for colds. In the future when we need antibiotics to treat serious infections, the bugs will have already learned how to beat them and the antibiotics won’t work anymore.
Instead of being able to cure infections, one day the docs will just look at each other, shrug their shoulders, and shake their heads.
My head is already shaking.